please note this post is not by Jay Clapp Photography but from the photography news at the guardian for your viewing pleasure please feel free to use the share buttons at the bottom.
A woman drawing on toast, a man maltreating an umbrella and another guy glowering at a teddy bear … who knew health and safety could be so fascinating – and so funny?
TUV is Germany’s biggest centre for product testing. Their motto is: “We make the world a safer place.” Everything from soft toys to toasters is tested for performance and safety by a team of experts, many of whom spend their days trying to pull teddy bears apart or dropping electrical devices from great heights. TUV is a place where safety is measured under a set of often unwittingly surreal circumstances. Enter young Berlin-based photographer Andreas Meichsner …
The images you see here are Meichsner’s deadpan take on these decisive moments at the TUV testing centre. “I don’t try to explain anything in my photographs,” he says. “In fact, I try to do the opposite: ask a question rather than provide an answer.”
His large-format series, titled TUV – to the Acid Test, has been a big hit at the Format festival in Derby, with viewers often guessing what exactly is being tested, and how. Why is that woman painstakingly drawing a grid on a slice of toast? And why is another woman dabbing a green substance on a series of plates? More intriguing still is the man staring intently at a soft, cuddly toy – and the woman who seems to be sautéing ball bearings in a frying pan.
Here, product safety is imbued with such an absurdist undertow that some of the photographs seem like stills from a conceptual-art performance film: a woman dragging a drawer on a rope through an empty warehouse; a man holding a kettle – or is it a drill? – at arm’s length while standing on a cupboard; another man wielding an open umbrella against a wind machine.
Format’s director Louise Clements praised Meichsner’s work for its “slightly surreal” edge, and the way it allows us access to a “secret and fascinating world”. Meichsner studied carpentry and architecture before turning to photography, so he understands the importance of durability. There is empathy in his images, too – even if they make us smile by drawing our attention to the ludicrousness underlying these meticulously practical tests that we take for granted as we use the products.
Meichsner has also photographed the extreme standardisation of Dutch holiday housing projects as well as organised holiday clubs across Europe. His book, Alles Ordnun (All Sorted), looks at how leisure time in Germany in these uncertain times is paradoxically becoming more regimented and organised around structured activities. It won the German Photobook award last year. Meichsner’s work highlights the absurdity and growing homogenisation of the everyday. It is as serious as it is funny. No mean feat.
via Art and design: Photography | guardian.co.uk http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2013/mar/15/andreas-meichsner-photographs-product-testing Sean O’Hagan Thanks for reading Jay
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